Policy makers are increasingly attentive to the importance of supportive school climates, even as many students report that schools seem to be uncaring places. Using recent scholarship that foregrounds the organizational and contextual dimensions of educational caring and student engagement, we use qualitative case study interview data to examine…

Background or Context: There is increasing research focusing on dual language (DL) education program policies and practices regarding who has access to bilingualism and whose bilingualism is valued and represented. However, limited research is situated in the context of Chinese-English DL education and its service of emergent bilingual learners…

Just as schools receive charters to run independently of districts, this brief proposes that teachers could receive charters to run classrooms independently of schools. In addition to providing teachers with more autonomy, charter teachers would give families the opportunity to select not the school their child attends but the individual who…

Recent headlines describing the national drop in public school enrollment suggest that this is a shocking crisis brought on or worsened by the pandemic. However, Abbie Cohen argues that the current enrollment decline should not be a surprise. The underlying causes have festered for decades. Among these causes is the tension between the different…

Charter schools because of their entanglements with privatization remain one of the most publicly contested and controversial educational reform initiatives. Charter schools, in theory, are to balance autonomy and accountability in order to provide students with innovative learning environments and increased achievement on traditional academic…

Access to music education in American schools is not guaranteed. Although national studies have demonstrated disparities based on poverty, race, and other markers, these studies miss a necessary level of local detail in describing access. Additionally, studies that exist are based on self-report surveys and prone to nonresponse bias. The purpose…

America has a long history of small-school environments, such as one-room schoolhouses and homeschools. But in recent years, other models have developed, giving students more intimate settings for learning and enabling their families to play a larger role in their schooling. Microschools are a leading example of this growing sector that also…

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the way that families and policymakers view K-12 education. Learning loss is having an outsized impact on students who were furthest from opportunity before the pandemic. And families are increasingly looking for new educational options for their children. For decades, access to educational options…

Tamim is an organization designed as a school network, much like those found in the charter school sector, among innovative public schools, and in smaller numbers in other corners of the private school sector. Tamim is built on the notion of expanding existing prekindergarten programs associated with local Chabad Jewish centers into full…

This paper offers a critical review of a report published in March by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan titled "Improving Oversight of Michigan Charter Schools and Their Authorizers." The report argues that charter schools and charter school authorizers need more oversight. Making the case for this position might include…

"Dismantled" is an accessible, critical look at the devolution of local power in the Detroit public school system. The author examines the rise of charter schools and other private enterprises, the eclipse of control from local actors to new players and influences, and the invaluable lessons the experience holds for urban school systems…

School principals often contend that having the ability to be the instructional leaders that they were trained to be hinges in part upon maximizing their decision making latitude. These leaders assert that policy flexibility allows schools to make necessary changes without the bureaucracy that they believe stifles reform, improvement strategies,…

This poll was conducted between September 23, 2023-September 27, 2023 among a sample of 1041 Teachers. The interviews were conducted online. Results based on the full survey have a measure of precision of plus or minus 3.08 percentage points. Among the key findings are: (1) Positive feelings about the direction of K-12 education fell sharply at…

This study of district closure and charter termination includes more than 18,000 students in four districts and more than 48 charter schools. Four main types of schools are included in these analyses: (1) District consolidation in which schools closed entirely and students transferred to schools in a new district (Wilmer-Hutchins ISD and Kendleton…

The benefits of attending diverse schools accrue to children from all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. The benefits include, but are not limited to, higher academic achievement. These gains continue into adulthood, leading to higher levels of social cohesion and civic engagement; reduced racial prejudice; and less segregation in…